NAB fetes broadcasting’s best

NAB 2012

This year’s NAB Show awards recipients range from actors to biz honchos to broadcasters.

Showbiz icons Garry Marshall and Betty White will be inducted into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame at the Las Vegas confab.

Marshall, whose decades-long TV career includes such series such as “Laverne and Shirley,” “Happy Days” and yakker “The Tonight Show,” will be recognized by the org thanks to his “extraordinary contributions to television history,” per Marcellus Alexander, exec veep of NAB’s Television branch.

White has received seven Emmys, the first for 1950’s skein “Life With Elizabeth” and the most recent for hosting “Saturday Nigth Live” in 2010 — with her classic role as Sue Ann Nivens on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in between. Long a ratings darling, White “is admired by generations of audiences,” says NAB prez Gordon Smith.

Also to be inducted into the Hall of Fame is Mr. Baseball — Bob Uecker. With more than 40 years as a pro baseball broadcaster — he is the longtime voice of the Milwaukee Brewers — the multihyphenate’s resume includes national game broadcasts, sitcom “Mr. Belvedere,” two syndicated TV shows, “Bob Uecker’s Wacky World of Sports” and “Bob Uecker’s War of the Stars,” with six feature films for good measure.

NAB will honor toppers of both Netflix and RTL Group with Content Owner Revolutionizing Entertainment (CORE) Awards.

Ted Sarandos of Netflix will accept the CORE Award for Innovator of the Year, and RTL Group’s Gerhard Zeiler will accept the CORE Award for Executive of the Year.

Second City will be receive the Spirit of Broadcast Award. Improv theater troupe’s alumni list includes Joan Rivers, Bill Murray, Steve Carell and Tina Fey. “Every day, millions of broadcast TV viewers bear witness to the influence (Second City) has had on both comedy and drama,” Smith says.